Date | 26 September 2000 — 10:00 | |
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Status | Olympic | |
Location | Cycling Road Course, Centennial Parklands, Sydney, New South Wales | |
Participants | 57 from 23 countries | |
Format | 119.7 km. (74.3 miles) mass start race. |
Defending champion Jeannie Longo was back for her fifth Olympics. But the dead flat course did not allow her or any rider to break open the field, and it came down to a field sprint. Finishing in Sydney downpour, the winner was the Dutch rider Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel over Germany’s Hanka Kupfernagel. Zijlaard-Van Moorsel’s performance at the 2000 Olympics rivals any in cycling history. She won the road race, the individual time trial, the 3,000 metre individual pursuit on the track, and won a silver medal in the points race on the track. She won the World Championships on the roads in 1991 and 1993, and in the Time Trial in 1998-99, and was a four-time individual pursuit World Champion (1990, 2001-03). Her career occurred in two phases. After 1993, she suffered from anorexia nervosa and lost almost 20 kg. (44 lbs.). But she recovered and returned to international cycling in the late 90s to enjoy her greatest successes.